Outdoor grilling or barbecuing is an increasingly popular pastime, and amateur outdoor chefs are continually striving to improve grilling techniques so as to enhance the taste and appearance of barbecued food. For example, one endeavor to impart flavor to food being cooked on a gas grill is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,052. Aluminum briquets having liquid-retaining channels or pits are described which allow fat and juices of food being cooked to form a char on the surface of the briquets so as to transmit flavorized vapors to the food being cooked. Unfortunately, the char layer is often difficult to produce, and the amount of flavor transmitted to the food is difficult to control and generally inadequate when contrasted to flavor imparted by charcoal briquets.
It is also known to place wood chips or the like into a bed of burning briquets (charcoal or permanent) so as to produce smoke vapors which will impart a smoky flavor to the food being cooked. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,640. The wood chips, usually made of hickory or oak, tend to burn unevenly and initially produce an overabundance of smoke and little or no smoke in the latter stages of cooking. The chips also have a tendency to produce unwanted flaming which can burn the food being cooked. U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,653 describes a method of treating these wood chips with a combustion inhibiting solution so as to control the flaming and smoke emission rate of the chips. This method suffers from the fact that potentially hazardous chemicals are added to the chips which may be emitted later during the cooking process so as to contaminate the food being cooked.
Another method for producing wood smoke flavor in food cooked on a barbecue grill is explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,677. This technique comprises placing a bed of wood flour between the heat source and the food being cooked so that the wood flour will smolder and emit smoke and vapor which is absorbed by the food. This method is disadvantageous in that the smoke is usually concentrated in one area of the grill and therefore does not provide for even flavoring of the food. Also, the wood flour is flammable and may become ignited due to its close proximity to the heat source, or undesirable "flaming" may occur due to the dripping of grease from the food being cooked into the wood flour bed therebeneath. Ignition of the wood flour will result in burning of food being cooked on the grill.
A need therefore exists for a flavoring substance and technique which provide for the impartation of wood-like flavor to food being cooked on barbecue grills which does not suffer the deficiencies of the methods and devices known in the art.